Unpopular?

Welcome to a new year and new decade!  We start it all off with a follow up to last month’s X-alt.  Then we thought about fame and popularity, tonight we looked at being unpopular.

All of us will be unpopular at some point, for some reason.  Being unpopular means to be:

• As popular as a skunk at a Sunday School picnic
• As popular as a tanning salon in the desert
• As popular as a turd in a punchbowl
• As popular as a fart in a lift
• As popular as a plaster in the swimming pool
• As popular as a wet dog at a wedding

Jesus also had strong words about what it means to be unpopular – Luke 6:22-23 and Luke 21:8-19.

Did Jesus really mean “All people will hate you because of me”?

We looked at the some of the things that Josh has drawn to our attention about Christians who are being persecuted in Eritrea.  Release have been running a campaign which you can learn more about here.  This is the video we watched:

We also watched a clip from the film King Arthur and discussed making a stand for what we wholeheartedly believe in.  Jesus reminds us that persecution is something we will face, but it’s just a part of history and history will pass – the end will come.  We look forward to a heavenly reward, and this should be a source of joy when things are tough.  Our faith will save us – we will receive eternal life.  We are part of an epic story bigger than time itself!

But it’s not just all about the future.  The passages we are looking at promise God’s blessing when bad things happen to us.  God will be with us and will provide us with what we need to stand for him.  That’s why we don’t need to worry about the great Dr. Pepper question – “What’s the worst that can happen?”

Having said all that, the epic story of following Jesus may be at great cost to us.  It’s a serious business – we can’t follow him lightly.  People may well hate us and persecute us.  How will we respond if we are faced with the sort of persecution faced by people in countries like Eritrea?